Leadership Team
Mike Aghajanian graduated from WPI in 1980 and has accrued over 35 years of consulting and industry experience. After retiring from PRTM Management Consultants, where he was the President and CEO, he founded the Armenia Project Center along with Diran Apelian in 2017. He continues to contribute to WPI through the Armenia Project Center, as well as WPI’s Innovation & Entrepreneurship Council of Strategic Advisors and the WPI Business School’s advisory board. He is also active in supporting Armenian organizations such as the Armenia EyeCare Project.
Aaron Sakulich is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering at WPI. He has advised IQPs in Armenia (in-person and remotely) since 2020 and has been co-director of the Armenia Project Center since 2023 along with Mike Aghajanian. He has a decade’s worth of experience in WPI’s off-campus programs, having previously advised in Morocco, Namibia, Panama, Iceland, and Worcester. He is also the Director of the Panama City IQP center, and founded the Project Center in Reykjavik Iceland.
Aram Hajian is an Associate Professor at the American University of Armenia (AUA). He serves a consultant and a board member at a variety of organizations in Armenia, including Arlex International and the Chess Academy of Armenia. An early supporter of collaboration between WPI and AUA, Aram has been instrumental in establishing the Armenia Project Center.
Norayr Benohanian is an adjunct lecturer at the American University of Armenia (AUA) and the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Projects Coordinator at the AUA Acopian Center for the Environment. He holds two Master’s degrees, a Master of Science in Materials Engineering from the German University in Cairo, and a Master of Engineering in Industrial Engineering and Systems Management from AUA. In addition to working on many initiatives focused on sustainability and industrial engineering, as well as teaching related courses at AUA, he has advised IQPs as part of the Armenia Project Center since 2019.
Hrachya Kocharyan received a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from WPI in 2020 and is currently an experimental researcher in Materials Science and Physics at AUA. He is very active in research on smart materials and metamaterials, and has advised IQPs a number of times.
Zoe Eddy is an Assistant Professor of Teaching at WPI and an active researcher in a range of disciplines including gender studies, environmental studies, history of science, literature, and critical media studies. Since 2023 she has served as the instructor of ID2050, a WPI course that students from both WPI and AUA take to prepare themselves for carrying out their IQP work in Yerevan.